Author: Mark Noonan

More of That Democrat “New Tone”

Mark Noonan2 Comments

From Real Clear Politics:

“When you look at African American males, 40% of them are unemployed, those under 30 years of age. I understand exactly the entire nation must be involved in this recovery but the black community is experiencing a great recession. That’s what we’re experiencing,” Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) told MSNBC.

“And all of the growth in the past 30 years, we see it slipping away. From home ownership, the middle class; it’s slipping away from our hands. And it has a lot to do with many issues. Racism, shipping jobs overseas, access — no access to technology. You know, the digital divide is there and many of the new jobs that’s what it requires. So, we have a problem.”

Yes, we do have a problem – most notably hack defenders of a corrupt, dying system who will toss around the accusation of “racism” in a white-majority nation which elected a black man President.

The reason there is such high unemployment in the black community – and all the other social pathologies – is not because some crackers are thwarting the black man, but because the black man has been corrupted by the welfare State.  Once upon a time, almost all black Americans worked hard, went to church more often, defended their families and did a whole host of things magnificently…even better, given the adversities black Americans faced when they first emerged from degrading and brutalizing slavery.   These days, a very large segment of the black population does none of these things…and they don’t do them because Big Government liberals have told them not to…told them that they don’t have to work, don’t have to have faith, don’t have to form and maintain families…sit on your rear and collect welfare, Nanny Liberal will take care of all things…

It is people precisely like Rep. Wilson who are the source of the trouble…and to defend their corrupt privileges, people like her are determined to defend this hideous deformation we call the liberalism.  Get rid of Wilson and those like her, and watch black people rise…2012 must be the year we make a clean break; it must be the year we crush liberalism.  Basic, human decency requires it.

 

Poll Reveals Americans Understand Big Goverment Scam

Mark Noonan38 Comments

From Rasmussen:

…A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 71% of American Adults say the bigger problem with welfare programs in the United States is that too many people get welfare who should not be getting it. Just 18% say the bigger issue is that too many people who should receive welfare do not get it, while another 11% are not sure.

Republicans (91%) and adults not affiliated with either political party (70%) believe much more strongly than Democrats (51%) that the bigger problem with welfare is that too many ineligible people are on it.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of all Americans think immigrants who follow the law and enter the United States legally should have to wait three years or more before collecting welfare benefits, including 31% who believe they should wait more than five years. Seventeen percent (17%) think three years is enough, while 11% prefer a five-year waiting period…

What is the scam?  Get as many people as possible hooked on Big Government hand outs, then claim that any proposed cut is a cruel, inhuman cut-off of someone who otherwise will die.  Use these in alternating efforts to continually grow government so that you can get ever richer and more powerful.  For the longest time, this worked…but this poll indicates that more and more people are understanding that massive numbers of people are on the dole who really shouldn’t be.

While I have no way to test my theory – it would take a large staff and a pretty big budget to do it – I firmly assert that at least half of the people receiving government benefits should be kicked off and forced to get back to work.  As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve got a pretty high standard for disability…no one will ever be able to erase from my memory my late colleague who was a wheelchair-bound victim of a horrific genetic disease who couldn’t even use all the fingers of her hands and yet managed to hold down a 40 hour a week job until just a few months before her death.

If she could work, then most people on disability can work.  Period.  End of story.  No, shut up you lazy SOBs with your whines about “stress”…get back to work and get off my wallet.  I’ve got stress, too – a great deal of which stems from having to get up and go to work in the morning while millions of people are on their backside watching daytime television and waiting for their EBT card to be re-filled.  In my view, you’re only excused from working if you can’t work…can’t get out of bed, can’t stand up for more than a few minutes, can’t sit down for more than a few minutes, are blind…missing your legs or arms…something like that (and this is Biblical – In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat – 2 Thessalonians 3:10 – so don’t any of you liberals try to throw Christian charity at me…I know the command to charity; but charity isn’t the act of supporting layabouts who can otherwise support themselves).

A great deal of the reform of America will be re-imposing the requirement of hard work.  Hard, dirty work, at that.  A nation which will not engage in hard work is a nation which will die – it is really just as simple as that.  Each person is required to labor to the limit of the talents God has provided him or her – those who can do much, must do so; those who can do little, must still do at least that…and those who really can do nothing, must be provided with every last thing they need from those of us who can.  But there are no free rides – if you are living off the wealth of others then it must only be because there is no other way for you to live.  A complete review of all those on government aid should be done – excluding only those on social security retirement and military pensions (you get SS because you earned it by working…you get your military pension because you earned it by risking your life over many years for your nation) – everyone on government aid should be forced to justify their dependency.  Tell us why you can’t work – show us your complete incapacity for any work whatsoever.  If that is indeed the case, then you can count on us to provide all you need…but if you can work, at all, then you’d better get to work.

Enough is enough – there really is no free lunch and it is time we called a halt to this liberal nonsense.

Facing the Truth About Egypt

Mark Noonan3 Comments

Representative Kay Granger (R-TX) says cut off Egypt if peace is threatened – from the Jerusalem Post:

Washington’s $2 billion in annual aid to Egypt will be cut off if Cairo backs out of the peace treaty with Israel, Congresswoman Kay Granger – whose job as chairwoman of the US House appropriations foreign operations subcommittee means she literally writes America’s annual foreign aid bill – told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

“The United States aid to Egypt is predicated on the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and so the relationship between Egypt and Israel is extremely important,” the eight-term Republican from Texas said in an interview…

This is only sensible – in order to secure peace between Israel and Egypt, the United States and Israel went about 100 extra miles to secure Egypt’s agreement.  It must be remember that Egypt was the clear loser in two wars of aggression launched against Israel.

As a result of those two wars, Israel had gained and retained firm control of the Sinai…and could easily have pressed far beyond the Suez Canal at will.  Israel was under no moral or legal requirement to return a square inch of formerly Egyptian territory…heck, Germany has more claim to East Prussia these days than Egypt had to the Sinai after the Yom Kippur War.  But Israel sincerely wanted (and still wants), peace.  It seemed not too great a price to free Israel from the renewed threat of war with Egypt…and so Israel agreed to surrender to the losers in the matter of the Sinai.

For the United States, it was a matter that Egypt had played a huge role in messing up the Middle East, forcing the United States to expend vast amounts of time and resources fixing what Egypt had broken.  But we also wanted peace between Israel and Egypt – and so we figured a relatively endless number of billions of dollars was worth it.  In the end, what Egypt – the aggressor/loser – got was all that Egypt had justly lost, plus a massive, monetary bribe from us to make peace.  And so peace was made – but the price of peace on Egypt’s part is to not in any way, shape or form threaten Israel.

Right now, that is shifting…and if the Moslem Brotherhood gains even partial power in Egypt in the upcoming elections, then that shift will become more pronounced.  The price Egypt must pay for breaking the terms of the peace treaty is to lose the bribe we offered…and we’ll leave it up to Israel if they want to take back Israeli territory in the Sinai (and I think they should – forthwith, before the new Egyptian government gets organized and, perhaps, moves major military forces in to the Sinai).  A deal is a deal, and the Egyptians are breaking it…and I don’t have any concern at all about why Egypt might be doing this.  It is immaterial…there can be no justification, and so all deals are off.  The Egyptians must be instructed that the losers can make no demands…and can’t ever change the terms.

It is high time we learned that you can’t play around with things like this – watching and waiting and hoping things will come out right just doesn’t work.  The graves of Egyptians and Israelis are already being dug due to Egyptian actions…the quicker things are resolved, the fewer there will be.  It is a matter of acting forcefully in the near term in order to cut off a catastrophe in the long term.

Obamunism! $4 Trillion in New Debt

Mark Noonan11 Comments

From CBS News:

The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama’s watch

The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion

It’s the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.

The national debt increased $4.9 trillion during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. The debt now is rising at a pace to surpass that amount during Mr. Obama’s four-year term…

Obama has been President for 2 years, 7 months and 3 days…I calculate this works out to about $4 billion dollars in new debt each day Obama has been in office.  That is just an incredible figure – and made worse by the fact that all we’ve got for it is money for liberal interest groups.  No real economic growth, no real jobs, no real wealth creation.  Its all been a bust – and a bankrupting bust, in to the bargain.

So, what is the new plan, liberals?  Start piling up $8 billion in debt per day?  Would that work?  You tell us…how much further in to debt do we need to go in order to make liberal economic policy works?  And can you give us a date certain while we’re borrowing that much where we’ll be done and prosperity will result?

2012 can’t get here fast enough…

The Gaddafi-Go-Round

Mark Noonan4 Comments

He’s captured, he’s dead…his sons are captured, they’re not captured…they will give you a tour of Tripoli.  The Right Scoop has links to the television video.

Anyone have the foggiest notion of what is going on in Libya?  I sure as heck don’t….but let’s not count Gaddafi out until he’s strung up somewhere…

I guess it all depends on how much money Gaddafi has…has he enough to buy mercenaries, or buy off part of the  rebels?  I guess we’ll have to sit tight and see.

Obama Weak Against Romney, Perry, Bachmann…and Ron Paul

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Goodness, this is getting rather pathetic for a sitting President – from Gallup:

President Barack Obama is closely matched against each of four possible Republican opponents when registered voters are asked whom they would support if the 2012 presidential election were held today. Mitt Romney leads Obama by two percentage points, 48% to 46%, Rick Perry and Obama are tied at 47%, and Obama edges out Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann by two and four points, respectively.

When you’re going to have to dog fight with Ron Paul to retain the Presidency, you are really dealing with “anyone but Obama” as the prime choice for 2012.  Its getting so that we could nominate a ham sandwich and win.

Exit question:  what does Obama do to change the dynamic?

New Tone Update

Mark Noonan29 Comments

Feel the love – from PJ Tatler:

With all the conviction of a traveling preacher, and a bought and paid for audience, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made sure her constituents understood that any conversation of a “New Tone” or “Civility” was meant solely for the political right, and would have no bearing on her, nor her devotees.

As Alexis wroter ealier, at a forum in Inglewood, CA, supposedly created to address the ever growing problem of unemployment in California – which is now at 12%, second highest in the Nation (2nd to Nevada at 12.9%) and significantly higher than the nation average – Rep. Waters told those in attendance that she was not afraid of a fight.

“I’m not afraid of anybody,” said Waters. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell.”…

Geesh, lady, what did the TEA Party ever do to you?  I mean, other than eject you from the House majority and thus lessen the opportunities for personal enrichment?

This is the modern left – pretending they are under fire and using that pretense to justify attacks on everyone who disagrees with them.  A corrupt, dishonest and blind Ruling Class limps to its destruction…

Fearfully, the Democrats Creep Towards 2012

Mark Noonan26 Comments

Clarice Feldman over at The American Thinker neatly captures the mood:

I think sentient Democrats are watching their party’s chances in 2012 slip away, and had they not made such a big deal of claiming all opposition to  Obama was racist in motivation and effect, they would now be urging him to quit and seeking a  new contender for his office.  Like Coleridge’s ancient Mariner, however, they can only stand on deck with that albatross around their neck watching both the White House and the Senate slip from their grasp just as did so many state governorships and the House of Representatives.

In the meantime the Ship of State runs  aground on the shoals of  incompetence,  corruption and laughable idiocy…

Ed Morrissey is also on the same wavelength, writing about the prospect of Obama not seeking a second term.  Farfetched?  Certainly…but it has happened before, most notably in 1968 when President Johnson surrendered to his foes (foreign and domestic) and withdrew from contention.  For Democrats it is the summer of discontent – nothing has gone right, and nothing looks like it will go right…and none of them really know what to do about it.

Some liberals out there, I’m sure, are hoping that the downfall of the Gaddafi regime will give Obama a boost.  It will – but not much, and not for long.  Thing about “leading from behind” is that any attempt to take credit for success looks silly…as if you were afraid to stick your neck out, but them leap to the front, claiming credit when things work out.  Also, if handing us bin Laden’s head on a platter only gave Obama a temporary boost, the downfall of Gaddafi doesn’t look to do more than move the needle for a a day or two (yesterday, Rasmussen had Obama approval/disapproval at 44/55…we’ll watch and see).

It must feel a bit like being in a car driven by a maniac…you want to reach out and grab the wheel, but you’re afraid if you do, the car will crash. All sensible Democrats must realize by now that Obama was massively oversold.  Also, that the concept of spending money to cure a recession/depression leaves much to be desired.  Having now a clearly unfit leader and an economy which can only be fixed by ditching 80 years of liberal politico-economic policy, they are rather boxed in.  They have to stay in the car, they have to let Obama hold the wheel…and they have to defend policies which have clearly failed.  Can’t be fun for them.

Unless there is an unforeseen turn around in our economic picture there is a huge hurdle to Obama being re-elected next year (stories that his personal popularity will trump distaste for his actual policies are asinine…no one will re-elect a likeable failure).  How Democrats will play it remains to be seen…but if by May of next year you start seeing Obama fund raising drying up while Senate Democrats are awash in cash, then you know what has happened:  the party is writing off Obama and trying to keep the GOP below 60 Senators, if not out of the majority.

And, of course, Morrissey could be right – Obama might quit.  About 1000-1 again, but it is a real possibility.  So, too, is a real primary challenge.  It could get mighty interesting next year (we’ll leave the prospect of a GOP split – and still having a GOP victory – for another day).

 

 

Economy Open Thread

Mark Noonan12 Comments

As I write this (8:36 pm EDT, Sunday), the market futures have been swinging from negative to positive and back to negative.  Rumors abound – some saying the Bernanke will print up bags of free money for the banksters, others holding that the end of the Libyan civil war will lower oil prices…but, meanwhile, gold continues its skyrocket towards $1,900.00 an ounce.  So, mixed bag.  Who in heck knows what will happen tomorrow?

Given this mystery, I can’t think of anything particular compelling to write…its all so messed up and so unpredictable that if I wrote something now, then by 9 am in the east, Monday, everything I said might be nonsense.  So, an open thread…watch what happens this glorious Monday…and feel free, even, to comment about non-economic things, if that is what you’d like here.  We’re really just along for the ride, anyways…

The Libyan Revolution

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Hot Air has the best running thread – but it does look like the end has come, and perhaps not just for the regime.  From Twitter:

Mohammed Gaddafi to Al Jazeera: (gun fire got louder here) “I..I… I am being attacked right now..inside, inside my house, inside”

So, now what?  No one knows – I don’t think anyone has anything but the haziest notion of what is going on among the rising power players in Libya.  The vacuum caused by the downfall of a 40+ year regime is bound to be large and difficult to fill.  All sorts of people with motives from noble to base and everywhere in between will be vying for power.  It could get messy.

Mostly we’re just going to have to be spectators – we can try to help (and certainly must help in humanitarian matters), but until at least some sort of nationally recognized authority emerges, there’s no “side” for us to take, as it were.

I would like to pause a moment here and remember – Gaddafi has been in power for most of my life.  He’s been reviled and lauded…hated and admired.  But in all the commentary I’ve ever seen on him, no one has dared to hit the nail on the head…he was merely a corrupt and cruel man who for his own, personal ambition took control of a nation and ran it as a private estate.  Everyone, as far as I can tell, took the man seriously – that he actually had something of an ideal in his mind that he was striving for, even if a mistaken ideal.  No one ever said, “hey, a man who claims he wants justice and murders his opponents, who claims he’s an Moslem purists but buys his arms from an atheist USSR; who claims to be a man of the people but sets his family up in a lavish lifestyle is nothing more than a lying sack of feces.”

This is what bothers be about the world – the way we go along with whatever someone says.  No one is courageous enough to say the emperor has no clothes.  Utter BS draped in rhetoric and aping rationality is treated as the real thing.  It isn’t just Gaddafi…it is all such regimes we’ve seen..starting with Lenin’s Russia, Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany.  Here’s the truth about someone like Lenin – he kept a stash of western cash and a fake passport with him while he was ruling Russia, in case he had to make a quick getaway.  People who do evil know full well they are doing evil…they dress up their wickedness in fine words because it works…it hoodwinks people.

Stop being hoodwinked – the next Gaddafi to happen along, treat him as he is…a thief, a murderer, a liar, a philanderer…a complete creep who managed to gain power, and nothing more.